Only a few hours before the Royal World Premiere of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland at the Odeon Leicester Square, the theater chain announced that it has reached an agreement with Disney to show the 3D film in Odeon cinemas. Earlier in the week, Odeon had declared that it would not screen Alice in the UK or Ireland to protest Disney’s plan to reduce the gap between the film’s cinema debut and DVD release to around three months rather than the usual 17 weeks. However, intense negotiations between Disney and Odeon paid off. A statement released on February 25th said, “Odeon is pleased to announce that it will now be showing Alice In Wonderland beginning March 5 in its cinemas in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria.”

Competitors Cineworld and Vue had previously struck deals with Disney and had announced their intention to screen Alice in their cinemas.

British moviegoers are the big winners here, since they will be able to see Alice in Wonderland as its creators wished it to be seen–in a cinema on a 3D screen. As Johnny Depp told the BBC at the Alice premiere, “What is most important, in all of this, is the people. The film is made for the people, and it’s not about my relationship with a corporation or Tim’s relationship with a corporation or anything else like that. It’s a film made for the people, and that’s why we’re all so happy it’s been resolved.”

The Zone thanks AnaMaria for the Odeon news release and Emma for the BBC interview; you can read much more about Alice in Wonderland on the Zone’s News & Views forum.